47, take two.
Welcome behind the scenes on an episode that's out of this world! That's right, the Doctor and Clara get to visit the moon! RUN! RUN! RUN! We have lunar locations .
.
ageing astronauts and spooky spiders.
So join us as we have a blast on set.
In this episode, we get to have an adventure set on the moon, including some guest astronauts.
I play Captain Lundvik, who is an ageing astronaut who has been sent up to the moon to establish what has gone wrong.
Trouble started on earth once an expedition was sent up and she's been sent up to sort it out.
How can the moon put on weight?
Well, lots of ways.
Gravity bombs, axis alignment systems, planet shellers.
So it's alien?
I love it when we have, as we have had all through the season, really good guest stars because they make everybody up their game and they make the whole show look great.
To get an authentic landscape for this episode, the crew would have had to fly to the moon, but, as the budget is not astronomical, the team found somewhere closer to home.
This desolate backdrop matched the lunar setting perfectly but it was actually located in a holiday destination
- Lanzarote.
Located off the west coast of Africa, Lanzarote is part of the Canary Islands and is renowned for its sunny climate and volcanic rock formations, making it the ideal choice to film.
Welcome to themoon.
Action! One small thing for a thing, one enormous thing for thingy
-thing! LUNDVIK: So much for history.
But how did the cast feel about filming away from Cardiff?
You know, the first question is why are we going to Lanzarote?
I thought we were supposed to be on the moon.
But when you get here, it does look amazing, doesn't it?
We've seen a little bit through the cameras as well and it just gives kind of the whole complete scale that you can't get in a .
.
studio.
DIRECTOR: Rumble! It gives you a real sense of being on the moon.
CLARA SHOUTS It's actually an incredibly beautiful, stunning landscape.
It was supposed to be the surface of the moon and apparently it is where they test out all the equipment that they would use on the moon cos it replicates the same surface as the moon.
Fascinating to see the aftermath of volcanoes just sort of still in their natural form.
It's probably historically the best thing to go to a quarry in Wales.
Sadly, in a Welsh quarry, the one thing you can guarantee is a bit of rain.
LUNDVIK: I'm going to have to detonate those bombs.
We went through all the normal options of thinking, "Should be in the studio with plate sh*ts?
"Should we find a moonlit Welsh quarry?
" But the truth is the best moon we could find was Lanzarote.
Although visually stunning, filming in this exotic location was not without its challenges.
Because of the nature of the episode, working in spacesuits which are quite restrictive, can't hear, can't see, can't breathe, no spatial awareness, and in 40 degrees of heat, it's been challenging in surprising ways.
I think it was easier for us.
I mean, the other guys have got real big, major, new spacesuits.
I'm wearing David Tennant's old spacesuit so I only have to worry about hair gel in the helmet.
I used to have hair gel like this.
Also we get these special cool vests that you get to plug yourself in like an eco
-car.
Ooh! It's coming through.
Can you feel it?
I can.
Yeah, they're like T
-shirts with tubes sown into them
- with cold water.
- You didn't like that one, did you?
I thought it was like being in a cold bath.
I didn't like it.
It reminded me of my frugal childhood.
JENNA CHUCKLES This isn't the first time the Doctor has filmed overseas.
Indeed, over the years, the production has been to a number of countries.
In fact, back in 1983, many scenes for The Planet Of Fire were sh*t in Lanzarote.
And, four years earlier, The City Of Death became the first Doctor Who adventure to feature footage filmed outside the UK, making great use of a five
-day sh**t in Paris.
Arc Of Infinity and The Two Doctors featured locations in Amsterdam and Andalusia, respectively, and the 1996 TV movie was sh*t entirely in Canada, with British Columbia doubling as the United States.
We're in Pompeii.
Actually, The Fires Of Pompeii was sh*t largely in Rome.
This was the first major foreign sh**t for Doctor Who in over a decade but many more instances quickly followed.
Dubai doubled for the alien world of San Helios in Planet Of The Dead.
And a sh**t in Croatia provided scenes for both The Vampires Of Venice and Vincent And The Doctor.
The team was back in the States for The Impossible Astronaut and The Day Of The moon, and this wasn't Mercy, or even America.
A Town Called Mercy was sh*t in Spain with Mini Hollywood and Mini Texas standing in for the 19th
-century Wild West.
And now the team has used Lanzarote as the moon.
We've come a long way since 1967, when this studio doubled as our nearest satellite.
But how long before Doctor Who is sh**ting on the moon itself?
Back on the set, the crew are filming a sandy showdown between the Doctor and a spider
-germ.
I had a big moment where I had to do my first wrestling with a rubber monster, bringing it to life.
Good luck, everyone.
DIRECTOR: Action! Is it those germ things, then?
Are they like cockroaches?
Is it an infestation?
LUNDVIK: Is it?
THE DOCTOR: Well, I've only seen one of them.
It would take an awful lot more to cause the moon to put on 1.
3 billion tonnes.
- Arrgh!
- CLARA: Doctor! LUNDVIK: No, it's a vacuum.
It won't work.
SPIDER
-GERM SHRIEKS Well, that makes two.
Cut there.
APPLAUSE You've got to do that, haven't you?
You've got to struggle with a rubber monster.
It's a Doctor Who rite of passage.
132, take two, camera, mark.
At the moon base, the crew are preparing to sh**t scenes with the other ageing astronauts, who are on a special moon mission.
So I'm Duke.
He's an older astronaut.
He'sfairly phlegmatic and he's stepping on the moon for the first time, to his great delight.
Although Duke is stepping out for the first time, for actor Tony Osaba, this is his third Doctor Who adventure.
I've got to say it is fantastic to be back on Doctor Who.
I mean, since the last time I appeared on Doctor Who, things have changed enormously, of course.
Peter, the new Doctor, who already you can tell is going to be one of the classic Doctors, undoubtedly, he's a terrific actor.
Great to be working with him.
Doctor Who veteran from way back.
- Done it all before.
- Put it there, pal.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you so much.
This will be the third character I've played in Doctor Who over the years.
The first time I appeared in Doctor Who was in Destiny Of The Daleks, which was when Tom was the Doctor.
Then a series called Dragonfire when Sylvester McCoy was the Doctor.
And so this will be a triple for me to be on Doctor Who three times over the years playing three different characters.
It's, yeah, a wonderful feeling.
Camera lock.
Unfortunately for Tony, no sooner had he returned, when his character Duke came face
-to
-face with a deadly spider
-germ.
These spider
-germs, as they are called, are lurking everywhere and I get, my character Duke gets att*cked by a one.
Arrgh! Duke! RUN! RUN! RUN! I wrestle as best I can with him but unfortunately the spider
-germ gets the better of me.
So spider
-germ one, astronaut zero.
DIRECTOR: Rumble! After some big explosions and a bigger decision from Clara, the moon is saved and all is well.
Three, two, one.
THEY SHOU With the crew finished in Lanzarote and another episode complete, it's back to earth for the cast and crew, but rest assured, they will never look at the moon in the same way again.